Loudon County School Board fires superintendent Scott Ziegler

The Loudoun County school board fired Superintendent Scott Ziegler in a closed-door meeting Tuesday night, December 7, 2022 after a special grand jury released a report blaming the school district for mishandling a student sexual assault incident in 2021. When an investigation was ordered by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, information revealed that a female student was raped in a school bathroom, but incident was kept secret and the offender was transferred to another school in the school district, which enabled the offender to commit a second sexual assault.

The assailant allegedly sexually abused two females in the district between May and October of 2021. At Stone Bridge High School, the male student allegedly forcibly anally raped a female student in the girls’ bathroom while “wearing a skirt” that supporters described as a kilt. He was transferred to Broad Run High School after the first incident. The offender allegedly “abducted” a second victim and attempted to suffocate a female victim, and sexually assaulted her, according to the report.

The 15-year-old student offender was convicted of two sexual assaults by a juvenile court judge and sentenced to a residential program in a locked down facility.

Ziegler was terminated without cause, and the school system will continue providing him with his $323,000 salary with benefits for one year.